Nothing against sexy vampires but Dracula is explicitly not that in the book.

The recent Nosferatu film is great because it depicts the vampire as the bitchless loser that he is rather than a sexy representation of lust. Dracula is literally a rapist. That's the entire metaphor. That's his thing.

Is it really that hard to just read the fucking book before making an adaptation of it

Is it so difficult to NOT have Mina fall in love with Dracula. You know, that thing that famously never happened in the actual book and only exists in movie and stage versions for some godforsaken reason

The most amazing bad movie experience I've ever had

If you were nearby and saw someone who killed a fascist, no you didn't

You're not a suspect? You don't have to answer anything they ask you

Thank you for it as well! ⭐ I don't often talk about literature I read with people so it's good to also examine my own pov on it

Much like how you're not meant to think the protagonist of Lolita is a good person, or think any of the characters in Great Gatsby are good people, or identify with Paul in Dune. I think it's a very vulnerable story exploring the sides of racism you don't often see in a society you can't fight alone

I don't necessarily think this needs to be the case. The MC of this story is flawed but not a bad person, and is doing her best to do right by her people under the circumstances

But I also don't think a protagonist needs to hit a measure of good character to be a well written character

I find this refreshing in a way, as they're not a band of freedom fighters trying to liberate or unify, but are self serving rich people trying to get their own way, even if it means sacrificing each other.

It's not a story of resistance to colonialism, it's a story of persistence in spite of it

So while they're not good people, they're themselves under similar pressures the MC is under. They're also each scheming in their own ways.

The other characters in this group all oppose it too, none of them really support the annexation because it isn't just annexation of her territories, but theirs too. They're in this as a way to force unification as representatives from each country he's trying to conquer

The MC is under a lot of pressure to do this both because she'll be executed if not, as an easy scapegoat for the murder, and because the machinations this would lead to could prove worse for her people as a whole. She doesn't like the king, he's not depicted as a good man, and neither are the rest

I wouldn't exactly call the story bleak though. I would just say that that's the kind of setting it is. I don't believe a story like this needs to end in a glorious revolution where everyone has a perfect happy ending - it's simply a murder mystery sapphic romance that happens to take place here.

Just for clarification on this particular point, they're not a friend group and are all treated as possible suspects in the murder investigation. The only reason the MC is with them is because she's forced to be; she's an expert in her field and is forced under pain of death to finish her mission

It isn't ideal but this book is a mystery fantasy thriller that takes place in basically Weimar Germany and doesn't seek to tell a story of revolution or anything. I'm guessing people wanted a gay Katniss Everdeen, but they're really missing the forest for a tree here

The annexation issue is a running theme that every character views wildly differently. The MC doesn't like it but it offers her people only marginal protection, and if the situation devolves into a civil war again, her entire race is up on the chopping block

The least terrible of them, not counting the main love interest, is a guy who does the bare minimum of not saying slurs, and the worst of them is a guy who gloats about eviscersting MC's entire race given the chance